NY SAFE Act Causes Another Round of Job Losses in Ilion

In his lust for the White House, New York Governor Andrew Coumo rammed through the NY SAFE gun control law after Sandy Hook, desperate to be “first” among the 2016 Democrat Presidential hopefuls. Poorly written and executed, it has become a perfect metaphor for what a Cuomo Presidency might look like.

At least 125 local workers are out of a job after yet another mass layoff at the Remington Arms factory in Ilion.

Earlier this year, the nearly 200-year-old gun manufacturer moved several product lines to a new plant in Alabama and a few months later more than a hundred local layoffs were announced.

“You know, what do you do? Where do you go?” Melinda Gooding said. Gooding’s husband’s job at Remington is spared but she’s afraid that may not stay the case.

“The scary part about it is what will become of this area? You know, that’s a leading, major business,” Gooding said.

Ilion Mayor Terry Leonard knows that all too well. He says not only do many people who live in the village rely on Remington for work but the village itself relies on Remington to work.

“Remington buys electric power from the village, so there’s a revenue issue there for us, and then also the tax base,” Leonard said.

Some lawmakers have blamed the SAFE Act for taking a toll on the gun manufacturer but Leonard says there’s more to this round of layoffs.

I respectfully disagree with Mayor Leonard.

Remington was prepared to invest heavily in New York for several lines of firearms prior to the anti-gun hostility shown from Cuomo and New York’s downstate Democrats in the NY SAFE Act.

It was only after the unworkable (and still broken) NY SAFE was rammed down the throats of New Yorkers that the company thought better of investing more in the state of it’s birth, and began looking south to those states where constitutional rights and individual liberties are something to be cherished and protected, not something to be undermined and overcome.

Colorado, Connecticut, and Maryland have also seen the departure of major and minor firearm and accessory manufacturers for freedom-loving states.

More job loses due to the NY SAFE Act for Remington and other New York companies are expected.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.
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